Tour du Limousin completed. This was phase one of my world championships build up. I’ve had a good break post Tour, although to be honest, it didn’t feel like a break. It felt more like a rehabilitation program. I was man down for two weeks. In fact three really, as before Limousin I still hadn’t been able to pedal in anger. More pedaling with gentle ‘please don’t hurt me’ strokes. I was a hoax, ashamed to be called a pro cyclist. But with Adrie’s help and JV’s world champs vision I was able to pull myself together enough to start Limousin.

Now Tea Bag (above left) and I are in the camper on a 600 km road trip back to Girona, hence the photo with our packed dinners. We have been having our usual philosophical discussions and nonsense diatribes. While it was still daylight, we were even enjoying the wonderful scenery, not hesitating to point out a particularly pretty valley or random medieval castle to each other. As ever, our conversation ended up back on restaurant terraces, something both he and I share a particularly strong affinity for. I’ve been rattling me brains to think of a good one in Girona to take him to before we set off to Ireland. I have another day or so to come to that decision.

As for Limousin, I finished in a much better state than I started. It’s a very hard race. The roads are small (smaller even than the Limousin canine cycling fan right) and so incredibly dead. Felt like I was dragging a car tyre the whole time. I suffered more than usual, but in a good way, a fresh heart-breaking-out-of-my-chest sort of way. Yesterday I spent the first two hours convinced I was going to explode. Today was better though. I felt more in control and just sat up in the last 2 km as it got a bit hectic. I have a few days to recover before heading off to Ireland where I’ll be no doubt better.

Spare a thought for my bonkers girlfriend Nicole who has set off to Mont Ventoux today. Her and her dad are going to ride the three sides of the giant in one day. Kathy, our trusty website guru, planted this seed of thought in her head a few months ago. I knew as soon as I heard Kathy say she’d done it that Nicole would rise to the challenge. There’s no way I can ever say to Nicole that she doesn’t know what suffering is…

I experienced a moment of pure happiness today. I got back to our hotel and went straight to Christian’s room. I knew he had ridden a fantastic stage and wanted to congratulate him. He was in great spirits. I then went to my room and opened up my computer and put on some music. […]

“Think of it boys. One week from now, we’ll all be drunk.” These were Kiwi Guy’s words of hope after we’d reached the bus at the foot of the final mountain on Sunday’s stage. Although the distant spectator may think the day is done for us the moment we cross the line, it […]

Now it feels like the Tour de France, a big rider has been caught doping. Funnily enough, we were talking this morning about how the positives that had been revealed to date (Beltran and Duenas) had been handled objectively by the press and hadn’t been over dramatized. We also noted to each other that […]

Half way through the race. That’s ten stages down, and I think few of my fellow racers would disagree that the most stressful stages of the Tour are now behind us. We’ve had a great start to the race, what with Will’s fantastic second place and my near miss in the time trial the […]

So Super Besse was a little disappointing for me. I just couldn’t stay with the front. I didn’t feel myself and was shocked to feel so bad. Fortunately, my poor performance was over shadowed by Christian’s gutsy move. When he went it was very impressive. The group was already moving at a good pace […]

I’ve got a yellow number! I’ve never been on a TdF team good enough to get yellow numbers. We get them because we’re leading the team GC. This is due to Will’s excellent breakaway and near miss a couple of days ago. That launched us into first place. Then between Danny, Christian and myself, […]

Stage one done. That was a weird way to start the Tour de France. It’s been over forty years since the race wasn’t launched with a prologue. I think it was missed, and that’s not because I can sometimes go fast in them, but because I think it creates a buzz and more of […]